October Sky Film Analysis

Coal Mining

Within the movie “October Sky” or the book “Rocket Boys” there is a lot of Coal mining that is relevant throughout the entire timeline. There are many examples of this within the movie and book. The entire town they live in is a mining town and the main characters father was the head of the mine. Therefore, Mining is very important to the story as well as the rest of the country during the 50’s and 60’s.
The town of Coalwood is the main setting of the movie. It is of course a coal-mining town. This town can only survive by mining from the ground the coal that lies in the mines beneath it. In this specific time period, from the Civil War era to the 1950’s, coal was the main source of energy throughout the country. Though, as you could see in the movie, the mine was running dry. It is true that after the 60’s other fuels took over coal in the competition.

In Coalwood and other towns like it, they were dependent on coal at this time.

Without coal they would have no homes of jobs. For a normal, non-mining family coal was important to cook and stay warm. The entire country used it to produce and work to create an economy. Without coal at this time we may not have had a stable economy.
You can see in the movie the importance of the coal in Coalwood. The fathers life is almost completely devoted to the mine and almost every kid expects to be sent down there to work. The entire town has ties to the mine, as those who also own the mine own the town itself. But no matter what coal is very important to everyone in the United States during the mid

1900’s.
But, what is coal and what does it have to do with science? Coal is a fossil fuel. Coal was formed by dead plants that and fell into swamp areas. It was then acted on by heat and pressure over hundreds of millions of years. The plants pressurized to coal from peat.
Coal itself has a wide variation of properties. Therefore it has four different rankings in the scientific world. These categories include lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. This order is that of increasing carbon content and energy power. Most of the coal burned in U.S. power plants is of the bituminous or subbituminous variety. Today, most underground mining occurs in the East, while surface mining dominates in the West.
Though back in the 50’s there were many underground mines in North America. Underground mining even today is one of the most dangerous jobs. Throughout the years it has killed and injured many leaving many with health problems such as black lung, the disease the father had in October Sky.